Friendship Interrupted
by JodithGrace
Summary: Buffy and Willow have a lot of catching up to do...takes place right after Same Time Same Place


Friendship Interrupted

By Jody E.

These characters do not belong to me. I just play with them for my own amusement.

Willow and Buffy have a lot of catching up to do. Takes place right after Same Time Same Place. No Spoilers for Help.

Buffy tried, for the third time in as many minutes, to suppress a yawn. Willow opened her eyes in time to catch Buffy's grimace and smiled. "Gettin' tired?" she asked.

Buffy smiled sheepishly, "Well, I don't want to stop your healing or anything but not counting that dinner break, we've been at this for hours. I'm afraid that I'm more action girl than meditation girl."

"Please, don't worry about it. I think we've accomplished all we are going to for one evening." Willow looked down at where the bandage covered her flayed abdomen. "I feel a lot better now. Besides, I was just about ready to call it quits, myself. I always know it's time to quit meditating when I start thinking about hot chocolate instead of my mantra."

"Are you kidding me? For the last half hour my mantra has _been_ 'hot chocolate!'"

"Well, then maybe we should go get some."

"Now that sounds like a plan. I think Dawn went to bed. She peeked in a little while ago." Buffy got up off the bed and stretched her cramped muscles. She looked quizzically at Willow who seemed in no hurry to get up. "Coming?"

"Buffy. I didn't get a chance to thank you for letting me stay here while I decide what to do."

"It's okay, Will."

"But are you sure it's okay with Dawn? She seemed kind of…not that I blame her, of course, but this is her house too, and…"

"Willow. I'll be honest with you. Dawn wasn't too keen on having you stay here. I don't have to tell you why. But we had a long talk, uh, we do that now…have long talks, and we agreed that here with me, with us, is probably the safest place you could be."

"Where you can keep an eye on me, you mean?"

Buffy looked embarrassed, "Well, sort of….but, "she added hastily, "_also_ because when the Hellmouth hits the fan you'll be right here at Information Central. We're going to need you, Will."

"It's okay, Buffy. You'd be crazy to trust me at this point. I'm not sure I trust myself. But, I'll try not to abuse my welcome." Willow also stretched, careful of her healing stomach, and got up. The two girls headed downstairs.

"Have you spoken to your parents lately?" Buffy asked as they entered the kitchen.

"I talked to my Mom right before I left England." She opened a cupboard, " Is this still where you keep the cocoa?"

Buffy nodded, "Change is bad. At least in kitchens." 

Willow took down the brown can, "Anyway, she says that they just love Mendocino. The wine train passes right by their back yard every afternoon. Though why that should excite them, when neither one of them drinks, is beyond me. They invited me up for Hanukah."

"Hanukah? Isn't that like, in _December?_"

Willow chuckled ruefully, "Close, we're not."

Buffy smiled sympathetically, "Well, at least they were smart enough to sell their house in Sunnydale before this new Hellmouth crisis brings real estate prices down to new levels of suckage."

"Yeah...they did really well…got almost half of what they paid for it."

"Thus answering the age old question of why people still live here."

Buffy put the pan of milk on the stove to heat. "I hope we still have some marshmallows. Dawn keeps sneaking them, and then when I go to make cocoa, the cupboard is bare."

"I thought Dawn doesn't like marshmallows."

"She doesn't, in cocoa...but she does like them plain, which is why I have to suffer!" Buffy removed the crumpled bag from the cabinet and stared in dismay at the three squashed mini-marshmallows remaining. "Typical!" she grumbled.

"Listen, remind me. I promised to call Giles...later tonight when it's not so middle of the night over there. I have to call him every day, actually. I guess he's kind of like my parole officer."

"Every day? Holy long distance, Batman!" Buffy exclaimed, trying to make light of the financial qualms she was feeling "I can hardly afford my phone bill as it is!"

Willow started to giggle. "Don't worry about the cost. Giles gave me a prepaid phone card." 

"Whew! What's so funny?"

"That Batman remark...you sounded just like Xander."

Buffy laughed, "Yeah, now that you mention it that remark was kind of Xanderiffic. I guess we've been hanging around together so much these past few months we're beginning to sound alike."

Willow raised her eyebrows, "Oh yeah? Any sparkage?"

"Sparkage? Me and Xander?" Buffy continued thoughtfully, "Well, you know, I can't say I haven't thought about it. I mean, he's lonely; I'm lonely; he's safe and reliable, and he cares about me and I know he'd never hurt me, and, uh, no."

"No?"

"No sparkage. What can I say, Will…he's like my brother. I don't need to be _that_ safe."

"Yeah. I know just what you mean. So...no other guys on the horizon?"

Buffy shrugged. "Well, the new principal at the High School is kind of a hottie. But he's kind of old. Not for a principal, though. I mean he's young for a principal, but still…"

Willow chuckled, "Buffy...if the guy is under a _hundred,_ he's still a spring chicken compared to…"

"I know, I know, " Buffy interrupted hastily. She mixed the cocoa, carefully placing one marshmallow in her cup and one in Willow's. Then, absently, she popped the remaining marshmallow in her mouth. She handed Willow a cup. The girls sat at the kitchen table. "But there's something a little, I don't know…hinky about him. I can't put my finger on it. For one thing...he's a vegetarian."

"Oh Goddess," Willow exclaimed, "You're right…he is evil and must be destroyed!"

Buffy laughed, "Besides, Sunnydale Principals have a very short shelf life. Even if he's not evil. _Especially _if he's not evil. His office is right over the Hellmouth, you know. As is mine, come to think of it."

"Do you think he has any idea of what's under him? Anya and I did a location spell to find Gnarl, which on second thought wasn't the _best _idea ever, and we saw demons aplenty right there. "

"I don't know…he seemed like he might have an open mind about things, which makes him a whole different breed of cat from Flutie and Snyder right there. But so far I haven't put him to the test. I haven't even really started working there yet."

Willow sipped her cocoa, "Uh, Buffy? Speaking of the school basement, which we _sort _of were….what's up with Spike? I've never seen him like that. Poor guy seemed totally…I don't know…"

"Insane?" finished Buffy, staring into her cup, "I don't know what to tell you about Spike. I don't even know what to _think_ about him. Every time I even start.... this self-protective voice inside my head goes, _'NO…Don't go there! Beyond this point there be dragons!'"_

"Wow. That voice in your head sure has a flair for drama. But I know what you mean. I have places like that too…in my mind…that I like to avoid. In England I've been learning how to go there and not, not fall apart, you know?"

Buffy sighed and was silent for a few moments, before making up her mind to speak. "Something I never told you, Will. And you haven't had much time to talk to Xander or _he_ would have, I'm sure. Remember that night you came into the bathroom and I was...on the floor…talking to Xander. It was the night before Tara…" She hesitated.

"Died," Willow finished grimly. "You can say it. It's a concept that I am going to have to learn to live with. Eventually. I remember that night…I knew something was up…what was it?"

"Spike tried to rape me."

Willow stared at Buffy in shock, her cocoa forgotten. "What? _How?_ I mean he couldn't could he? Wouldn't that cause his chip to go off...I mean of course it would."

"Spike's chip doesn't work on me...not since I came back. T-Tara said it was because I came back just a little bit different on a molecular level or something like that. And who knows how Spike's chip really works anyhow?"

"Yeah...there's this whole gray area where science meets magic. I don't understand it either. But Buffy…that's _horrible!_ What happened?"

"Well, he didn't succeed…I kicked him across the bathroom. In fact the only reason he...uh, got as far as he did was because I had just hurt my back on a gravestone about 15 minutes beforehand. I was about to take a bath with that achy muscle stuff you concocted for me."

"Buffy…I don't know what to say. Why didn't you tell anybody? Well, obviously you told Xander but why not me?" There was an edge of hurt in Willow's voice.

"Xander just happened to come barging in right after Spike left. I wasn't planning on telling him, or anybody else for that matter. It's not like I could have called the police or anything. As it was, it was all I could do to keep Xander from killing him, especially after the Anya thing. And then, the next day, everything fell apart anyway. And....and then Spike was gone, so what would have been the point?"

"Gone? What do you mean?"

"Gone. He left town. He was gone all summer. I kinda figured he was gone for good, you know?"

"How did you feel about that? Him being gone, I mean."

"I don't know. I was shocked, I guess. But I had so much other stuff to worry about right then, I couldn't deal with it, you know?"

Willow looked down, abashed, "I know. I guess Spike _was _kind of missing during that whole thing…I didn't really notice."

"Then suddenly, a couple of weeks ago he shows up in the basement of Sunnydale High School, like the Ghost of Christmas Past, looking and smelling like something the hellcat dragged in, not to mention acting like a total loony."

"He didn't look that bad to me, though he didn't seem to be all that coherent."

"Oh you didn't see him like he was at first. But a few days later he walks into my living room mid-Scooby meeting, all cleaned up and passing for sane. He's all Mr. Helpful, claiming that all he wants to do is fight the good fight with us. And we did need him to fight this big wormy demon thing so I let him tag along, after assuring Xander that he wasn't going to bother me. And that's where it gets really weird."

"Oh…you mean we haven't gotten to the weird part? Coulda fooled me."

"Yeah. Well, we catch up to this wormy thing, and Spike stabs it with a metal rod just as the worm turns…into a guy…Anyaka's handiwork, as you might have guessed. And Spike totally freaks. Ranting and raving, like I don't know what, before running away. I call 911 for the ex-worm guy and follow Spike into that little chapel in Heaven's Gate Cemetery."

"I know that place. What…you mean Spike went into a church?"

"Yeah. I told you it was weird. I found him in there, in the dark, pacing around…he was talking crazy, but it wasn't really crazy, know what I mean? It all made a kind of sense. And what I managed to get out of it was that somehow, and I have no idea how, Spike got his soul back."

Willow was astounded, "Buffy you can't be serious! His soul? That's...well, it's _not _impossible, we've done it, but it's incredibly difficult and ..was it a curse? Did he kill a Gypsy?"

"Willow...I think...I think he went and got it back on purpose. For me."

"For you? Oh Buffy."

"Yeah. 'Oh Buffy' is right." Buffy stirred her untouched cocoa. "So, what am I going to do, Will? What am I _supposed _to do? I mean…do I just forget his past? _He_ can't. It's obviously torturing him. Do I leave him in the basement or take him in like a homeless puppy? Am I supposed to say, 'Oh Spike…you got a soul for me...I love you now?' Am I? What is required of me here, Will? I just don't know." She slammed her spoon down on the kitchen table and looked up at her friend with angry tears in her eyes, "_And it's just not_ _fair_! I didn't ask him to do this! Never! And now he comes back after three months and expects love and forgiveness, and God only knows what and I just _can't deal with it._ And Will…what kind of a person am I that _can't_ love and forgive? You should have heard me there in the woods joking with Xander about the crazy smelly vampire! I don't even know who I am when I'm like that. I don't want to be that person again, Willow."

"Look, Buffy…I can understand how conflicted you must be feeling right now. But Goddess...a soul…A soul on purpose…this is _huge!_ What did Xander say? And Dawn?"

"They don't know. I haven't told anybody else."

Willow's eyes lit up, "Just me?"

"See? That's just what I was talking about. All summer I have been working on not shutting people out, on sharing my thoughts and feelings. Then Spike comes back, and suddenly, _boom_, I'm cold, bitchy, non-sharey Buffy again!"

"Well, you told _me_…that's a start."

Buffy smiled, "God, Will…I've really missed having you to talk to, even if I didn't do much of it last year. Dawn's been really great...we get along so well now, you wouldn't believe it, but she's my little sister. There's only so much I can tell her without warping her young mind, which is _already_ more warped than most 16 year olds. And Xander...well, he's terrific, but you know… terminally _male."_

Willow chuckled.

"And he's never been what you would call open-minded about my relationships. He hated Angel, only got to like Riley right before he left, and Spike…well, we all knows how he feels about Spike! The worst part, though, is the way he keeps taking my side!"

"Bad Xander! Though explain to me again.. .._Why_ is this bad, exactly?" 

"The night Riley left, Xander read me the riot act. Told me that I was just using Riley and not really giving anything to the relationship. And he was right, though by then it was too late. Still, he could see things that I couldn't. But with Spike...well he just hates him so much that he keeps seeing me as this innocent victim to Spike's evil plans. And the fact is...that's very far from the truth. Believe it or not, Spike tried very hard to be a good boyfriend. I just wouldn't let him. I used him like a Band-Aid when I was hurting, and then when I began to heal, I threw him away. "

"But the whole rape thing…by no standards is that good boyfriend behavior… no matter what you did."

"No, _absolutely_. And it freaked me, Will. But I've had all summer to think about it and I am beginning to understand a little bit what made him do it, and I see now that _that's_ what must have driven him to get his soul back. The knowledge that he could do that to me."

"I don't know, Buffy. You sound pretty forgiving to me. More than I would be probably."

"Believe me, Will. We both have some things to forgive. I was pretty awful to him."

Willow got up and put her cup into the dishwasher. "I think you're being too hard on yourself. After all, you couldn't have been worse to Spike than Drusilla was. Or Harmony."

Buffy gasped, and started to laugh, "Oh my God, Will. I-I never though of that. I mean I always think of Spike as part of _my_ bizarro dating history. Spike, Angel, Riley and," she wrinkled her nose, "Parker! But I never thought of myself as being on a short list with Drusilla and Harmony!"

At this Willow began to laugh also, "You, Drusilla and Harmony…what a combination!" 

"The Evil Trio!" Abruptly, as though somebody had flipped a switch, Buffy and Willow both stopped laughing. "Oh, Willow, I'm sorry. Bad reference." 

There followed an uncomfortable silence. After a while Willow ventured, "I'm not sure I'm supposed to ask this...but have you heard anything from Jonathan and Andrew?"

Buffy didn't hesitate to answer, "Not a word. I just hope that wherever they are they are reconsidering their lives."

"Me too, " said Willow sadly, "No really, I mean that. In a lot of ways they were victims of Warren too." 

"We all were. He took something very precious from all of us."

"I haven't even visited her grave. It is here isn't it? Her parents didn't come and take her away?"

"No, Willow. She's here. We'll take you in the morning. Or whenever you want. Actually Xander will…I start my new job officially tomorrow."

"Thank you," Willow said, "You guys are great. Listen... I think I'd better get some sleep. Are you going to patrol?"

"Yeah, I think I'd better. With this new Hellmouth threat, I want to keep a constant eye on things. Hey…look what I've got as one of the perks of my new job, besides getting to eat cafeteria lunches," Buffy reached into her pocket and pulled out a small ring of keys, "Shiny new keys to the shiny new Sunnydale High School. I think I'll go check on that crazy vampire with a soul. Will you be alright?" 

"I'll be fine." Willow took Buffy's cup, emptied it in the sink, and put it in the dishwasher. She ran cold water into the cocoa pan. "Thanks for the hot chocolate."

"Never forget. There's nothing that can't be fixed by the prompt application of a little chocolate. Night, Will. Don't forget to call Giles." She and Willow looked at each other for a moment and then hugged each other gratefully. Buffy went out into the night, and Willow went upstairs, but for the first time in months, neither girl felt alone.

The end


End file.
